(Cricket news) India have announced a 16-member squad to take on Sri Lanka in a 3 match T20I series. After the disappointment of the T20 World Cup, India won a rain affected T20 series away at New Zealand. Now they will be looking to test themselves against the Asia Cup winners. The men in blue as expected will be playing with a 2nd string team. With the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship coming up T20s have taken a back seat and rightly so. The 3 matches will be played in Mumbai, Pune and Rajkot. The next T20 World Cup isn’t till 2024 and India need to try out as many youngsters as possible.
India’s squad for the T20I series against Sri Lanka –
Hardik Pandya (Captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Umran Malik, Shivam Mavi, Mukesh Kumar.
As expected 3 format players Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and Mohammed Siraj have been rested. Rishabh Pant has a niggle on his knee which will keep him out of the ODI series as well. Axar Patel is an exception as he is a part of the squad as are T20I regulars Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh.
Kuldeep Yadav who was part of the New Zealand series and recently did really well in the Test match against Bangladesh has been dropped. The decision is a little surprising but it may have to do with the fact that the selectors want only one wrist spinner and they have chosen Chahal.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik were dropped straight after the T20 World Cup presumably because of their age as India wanted to transition into a new generation. Bhuvneshwar Kumar still made it to that squad but now he has been dropped. India will be looking to give the younger bowlers more opportunities to grow at the international stage. Rahul Tripathi and Ruturaj Gaikwad who haven’t been in the squad since the Ireland series are both back while there is still no place for Prithvi Shaw. Deepak Chahar is yet to recover from his injury and hence he isn’t in the squad.
Shivam Mavi and Mukesh Kumar been handed his first international call up. Mavi has been playing the IPL for a long time by Mukesh Kumar’s call up is a surprising one. The 29 year old has been performing well for Bengal and for India A but he is yet to feature in the IPL. At the age of 29, he was brought to the auction for the first time. Getting a T20I call up without playing in the IPL has never happened since the inception of the competition which is rare. There is no news about Prasidh Krishna who may still be recovering from his injury while Avesh Khan has completely disappeared from the international set-up.
Also read: Should Shardul Thakur have played ahead of Jaydev Unadkat in the 2nd Test?
